Where to print your photographs

While I’ve been sending my images away for printing, and been very happy with the results, I thought it was time for a “scientific” comparison test.

Not only do I want to make sure I’m sending the best quality prints to customers, I also wanted  customers to know where to take their images from portrait sessions for the best results.

As of January 16, 2012, I’ve compared five spots in the city of London to print photos, and while I plan to widen the scope to include more labs, and ones outside the city, I wanted to share the findings so far.

The contenders:

• Henry’s (Moments Photofinishing)
• Black’s Photography
• Forest City Image Centre (CameraCanada.com)
• Costco (Photo Centre)
• Wal-Mart (Photo Centre)

For the test, I used the automatic web uploaders, since it meant I didn’t have to run around the city just to get them to the lab. I also chose to pick up all of the orders, rather than pay for shipping. I always chose “matte” and no border, which was always available as an option.

I set up four 8x10s with a wide range of images covering as many colours and tones as possible. I chose not to have the colour corrected – where available – as I wanted to see my images as I created them, not what their algorithms thought they should look like.

The winner, by a large margin for me, was Forest City Image Centre. Click through below for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Unfortunately I gave up my good scanner when I moved to digital, but if I can gain access to one, I’ll post the comparison photos.

Tell me, dear Internet, where do you print your photos? And what do you look for in a photo lab?